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He went down with me, where the trains from Germany were arriving. He ordered me to unload them and then to load them with merchandise from Poland. I was dressed like this: six shirts, two suits, my brother’s and mine, a jacket that my brother had once made, a short one made from an old coat and a nice coat, with thick lining – you can’t find coats like these today, monogrammed and everything.
So I started unloading these cars. The German stood there, this tall brute with a gun and watched me. I was completely wet, sweating like a pig. I thought to myself, ‘what’s happening to my friends?’ They stayed upstairs. And I was underground, so I told this German I was very hot and asked him if I could go upstairs, quickly change clothes and come back. ‘You have five to ten minutes, but be back here immediately.’ ‘Of course I will.’ So I jumped out, caught two boys [friends] and told them [what had happened]. Suddenly I saw this German on the stairs. He was a tall brute. He noticed I wasn’t coming back, so he went to get me. There were lots of people, because it was a train station. He looked around. I saw him from a distance, but he didn’t see me. When he was walking in my direction, I moved somewhere else and then again, so we played hide and seek. I finally lost him. Then the girls came to the train station. They ran away to the city when the German took me and they were raped, captured by the Germans and raped. They came back crying and told us about it. I got up in the morning and went to my cousin’s.
This visit was my first task. I sneaked out of the train station. It was raining. It was my first time in Warsaw, but I knew the address: 24 Hoza, corner of Krucza. A dark blue Polish policeman [‘dark blue policemen’ were Polish police officers working for the Germans] met me along the way. ‘Hey mister, what are you doing?’ He must have been a decent man, because he could have taken me to the Germans and that would have been it. ‘Mister, it’s after curfew, where are you going?’ I was completely wet, all my shirts were soaked through. I reached Grzybowski Garden, but it was dark and I couldn’t see anything. But I somehow found my way to my cousin’s. I didn’t know my cousin’s wife at all. I don’t think they had children. I told them what I was there for, that I was running away, that my sister-in-law had a baby, that she was waiting, that different people had come and said they had seen my brother in Germany, in Hanover, someone else said in Berlin. All this waiting and nothing came out of it. I didn’t tell my sister-in-law before I ran away where I was going and why.
So I started unloading these cars. The German stood there, this tall brute with a gun and watched me. I was completely wet, sweating like a pig. I thought to myself, ‘what’s happening to my friends?’ They stayed upstairs. And I was underground, so I told this German I was very hot and asked him if I could go upstairs, quickly change clothes and come back. ‘You have five to ten minutes, but be back here immediately.’ ‘Of course I will.’ So I jumped out, caught two boys [friends] and told them [what had happened]. Suddenly I saw this German on the stairs. He was a tall brute. He noticed I wasn’t coming back, so he went to get me. There were lots of people, because it was a train station. He looked around. I saw him from a distance, but he didn’t see me. When he was walking in my direction, I moved somewhere else and then again, so we played hide and seek. I finally lost him. Then the girls came to the train station. They ran away to the city when the German took me and they were raped, captured by the Germans and raped. They came back crying and told us about it. I got up in the morning and went to my cousin’s.
This visit was my first task. I sneaked out of the train station. It was raining. It was my first time in Warsaw, but I knew the address: 24 Hoza, corner of Krucza. A dark blue Polish policeman [‘dark blue policemen’ were Polish police officers working for the Germans] met me along the way. ‘Hey mister, what are you doing?’ He must have been a decent man, because he could have taken me to the Germans and that would have been it. ‘Mister, it’s after curfew, where are you going?’ I was completely wet, all my shirts were soaked through. I reached Grzybowski Garden, but it was dark and I couldn’t see anything. But I somehow found my way to my cousin’s. I didn’t know my cousin’s wife at all. I don’t think they had children. I told them what I was there for, that I was running away, that my sister-in-law had a baby, that she was waiting, that different people had come and said they had seen my brother in Germany, in Hanover, someone else said in Berlin. All this waiting and nothing came out of it. I didn’t tell my sister-in-law before I ran away where I was going and why.
Period
Interview
Jakub Bromberg
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